The present invention relates to a roof assembly having an opening in a fixed roof of a vehicle.
Such a roof assembly is known, for example from JP-A-10166866. Said roof assembly employs sliding shoe units, which comprise spring-loaded sliding shoes, which each engage round the flange of the guide rail. To this end, the sliding shoes are shaped as a horizontal xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d.
The object of the invention is to provide a further improved roof assembly for a vehicle. The assembly includes a stationary part to be fixed to the roof. A plurality of guideways are provided in the stationary part and each guideway includes a flange with opposed sides. A closure element is supported by the stationary part and is slidably guided along the guideways. A plurality of sliding shoe units are coupled to the closure element and include first and second sliding shoes. The shoes engage opposite sides of the flange between the sliding shoes under spring pressure.
As a result of the fact that separate sliding shoes engage the opposed sides of the flange of the guide rail, in combination with the spring load (in a vertical direction), no play will occur between the sliding shoes and the flange. Furthermore it will be easy to compensate for tolerances, so that the sliding shoe unit is less critical in regard to production tolerances. It is possible thereby for a sliding shoe on one side of the flange to provide the vertical reference, while the sliding shoe on the other side mainly provides the spring action.
Advantageously, the sliding shoe unit comprises three sliding shoes, two of which engage one side of the flange while one engages the other side of the flange.
In this way each sliding shoe unit can slide along the flange without exhibiting a tendency to tilt, in particular if the first-mentioned sliding shoes engaging one side of the flange are positioned outwards of the second sliding shoe engaging the other side thereof.
In an embodiment which is advantageous with regard to production tolerances, each sliding shoe unit comprises a metal mounting element, and at least said second sliding shoe has been formed around a supporting portion of the mounting element by means of an injection molding process. Any tolerances in the supporting portion of the mounting element will be compensated by injection-molding the sliding shoe in the correct position thereon.